Sad Month

Sad Month
April 6th marked 4 years that my brother Daniel Michael Kauffman died from congested heart failure. I have a picture of him in my bedroom that reminds me of the happy times he & I shared. He was a good person that tried to do the right thing for everyone around him. He is missed every day!!

April 28th 2010 my Uncle Joe died from complications from a good mix of everything. He had a brain tumor removed last month and then had to go back to the hospital because it got infected. The infection went throughout his body and he ended up with pneumonia. The infection from his brain then also turned into highly contagious case of merca (staph infection MSRA). He was so weak from everything attacking his body! Thankfully he went peacefully in his sleep. He left behind his wife (Lori), 3 kids (Erin, LeeAnne, and Kirk) and 2 grandkids (Zion and Micah). I didn’t grow with a good strong male figure in my life but 2 of the men that were constants were my Uncle Sonny that died when I was in high school and my Uncle Joe. They showed me what I wanted in a husband & friend for myself and a father for my children. Thank you Joe and Sonny and please keep an eye on my family for me!!!

“Perhaps they are not the stars, but rather openings in Heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy." ~ Eskimo Proverb

Orthodontist

The day after our spring break getaway I had to take the boys to the orthodontist to get some hardware put in their mouth – OUCH!! Stephon got a retainer for now. It’s glued in so he doesn’t have to worry about taking it in & out. He’s still got 2 more teeth to lose before they will put his braces on. This retainer is just holding the space he has so there is no more movement than need be. We go back in June to check his progress.

Ashton on the other hand got a mouth full!! He got a turn-key contraption on the top with 3 pieces of acrylic holding 3 teeth on each side. The acrylic is covering his teeth. Makes it very difficult for him to chew! It’s like having rubber on 6 of your top teeth – you have to either use the front 4 to chew or the few he has uncovered. He was already VERY slow to eat before and this has only magnified it!! UGH!! On the bottom he has a wire that is glued in. Both of these pieces are put in to expand his mouth. Once they get the jaw to the width they need them to be to fit all his teeth in then they’ll take them out and put braces on. Hopefully if everything moves like it’s supposed to then he’ll only wear the stuff he has now for 6 months. He’s done very good brushing his teeth 2 – 3 times a day (he has a toothbrush and toothpaste at school for after lunch) and using fluoride every night and then giving me the tool to turn his key. He hasn’t complained one time. I will say this…….he was 63 lbs for an entire year. He was up to 64 lbs the week before he got his mouth pieces on and it was a celebration in our house!! Last week he was down to 62 lbs but last night he was back to 63 lbs so thankfully he’s not losing too much weight!!! He doesn’t eat much but he’s been drinking Ensure shakes to get his proteins and vitamins! One month down and 5 more to go!!

Spring Break 2010

Sorry no pictures this year – took my camera but the batteries died after the first 2 pictures and then couldn’t get the camera to work again the rest of the time. Oh well – we have the memories in our heads.

This year we took the boys to Cincinnati. It was a first for all of us! We stayed the first night at Coco Resort with an inside water park. It was nice but it was more for younger children and Stephon got bored real fast! But put them in water and they are entertained for hours! The night we checked in we got there between 5:30 & 6 and thankfully we did. After we checked in and went to the water park area everything was good for about 30 minutes. Then the electricity for the entire city block went out!! We sat and sat and then when they finally realized the lights weren’t coming on any time soon they shut the park down for the night. We decided to go to the room and change for dinner. It’s a violation of some fire code to not have emergency lights in the stairwell area….lets just say they should have been fined very heavily as it was a very dark walk to the 9th floor!!! It’s been 3 weeks since that happened and Ashton is still freaked out about the dark. We drove to Kentucky to have dinner and but the time we got back the lights were back on. Thankfully the next day it was back to running full steam and the boys spent all day there in the water. Even Stephon - pretty sure there were girls chasing him around & he loved it. It was a nice enough place but I can’t see us going back again.

The next night we stayed downtown at the Millennium. I had stayed at the Millennium in Chicago and I can tell you that even though they are the same chain they are NOTHING alike. This was nice but windows were so thin we could hear the wind howling and could hear every car drive by even though we were on the 13th floor. With Ashton still freaked out about the dark from the previous night and now mixed with the constant sounds from outside…it made for a long night of tears with him!! Breakfast the next morning at the hotel restaurant was very good though so all was forgiven!! We took the boys to the Cardinals & Reds game (thanks to Amy for the recommendation). They were calling for rain but not one single drop fell on us. It was partly sunny but still very chilly. We dressed like it was the middle of winter. Their park is very nice and it was a fun game. Ashton had never been to a MLB game before so he was very much into it. Plus we had seats behind 3rd base, 2nd row. It was a great view. We got home late that night after the game and had to be up at 5:45 the next morning for the boys to go to the orthodontist…..

Hello Handsome!!

I am still working on getting pictures of Stephon up from this year. I'm sure I'll get one soon. We have 4 more weeks of basketball and lots of games within those 4 short weeks!!!

Another week down

Last week went by in such a blur. The evenings were quiet and that’s always nice. Friday was my niece’s birthday (Brooky). We went to see her Friday night at her house in Lagrange. She’s 6 now and still Zach’s favorite little girl. They just love each other – she’s the daughter that Zach will never have! We got to spend the evening with Linda (my sister) and her family. We don’t get to just sit and relax and talk very often with them. We had some pizza and Brooklyn opened our gift to her. She’s into necklaces right now and so we got her some fun ones, one of them being a locket that I put a picture of her daddy in for her! We also got some pastel colored bangle bracelets that were a huge hit with her and her little sister that is only 2!

Saturday Stephon had 2 games in North Manchester. The first game was against NM and then the 2nd game right after was against Leo. Both teams were very good and were both teams we hadn’t played before. We struggled with both games and lost both of them. I hate to see them lose but at the same time they have to learn to lose in order to appreciate their wins. I hope they learned something and grew from this experience. I don’t care if they win or lose as long as they went out and played as hard as they could and walked away knowing they tried their best!

This past weekend was such a blast. We finally had a weekend off with no sports – HOORAY!! It was so nice to have no agenda!! Friday night Zach and I had date night. Now I’m not a big believer in the whole Valentine’s Day but it does give Zach and me a free babysitter for night when Cathi offers to babysit for us. So of course we took advantage of it. We went to eat at Oyster Bar – Oh my…it’s so good!! It was very busy but it was still a very good meal. We got to talk and take our time to eat. It was nice to have grown up time!

Saturday we got to sleep in and that was so nice. I almost forgot what it was like to sleep in. Ashton and I played Monopoly for over 5 hours!! Neither one of us were willing to let the other one win so it was down to the very last dollar. I am happy to say that I beat the pants off that child – ha ha!! It was after 9:00 at night so we were happy to put the game up and snuggle on the couch and watch the Olympics.

Sunday we got to sleep in again and Zach went to get us donuts!! We got to go skiing with some great friends for the day (Clark’s, Moore’s, O’Haver’s and Sausaman’s). They each brought their own kids and it was a blast. I stayed in the lounge and kept a few of the other parents company. We got home at 10:30 that night and getting the boys up for school this morning was easier than I had thought. I’m glad we are able to give our kids these things. They get to grow and become independent and learn how to grow with their friendships. I cherish everyday I get to be their mom.

Brace-Face

Last week we had our dentist appointment and we got the ok to take BOTH boys to the orthodontist. I was shocked that they said both boys as I was only trying to get the OK for Stephon. So Monday we called the ortho and we got in that night – they had a last minute cancellation. So we took the appointment. They did a thorough check on both boys and took lots of pics and got some x-rays done as well. With Stephon he has 3 baby teeth that are on the edge of coming out and because they are so close to popping out the doctor wants to wait a few weeks and see what happens. Once we get the ok with him he can go straight to braces. Thankfully for his dad and his perfect teeth to help cancel out some of the painful hardware that Ashton will have to get. Ashton has to get started on phase 1 of his mouth corrections. In March we are taking both boys back to get scans and molds made of their mouths / teeth. As soon as they do Ashton’s then he goes right back in to get hardware put on the top & bottom of his mouth to widen the jaws. He’s got his mom’s small mouth (small but still very loud like his mama) and with children they can widen the jaw to help all the big teeth fit in (he has my big teeth too – lucky him). He’ll have the hardware on his teeth for a few months and then he’ll get a turn key contraption. After that then he’ll get braces on his permanent teeth he has right now – top 4 front, top 2 back, and bottom 6 front. All of that should be less than a year. Then once he looses all his baby teeth he can go back in and get braces on again but this time on all his teeth. I was an adult when I got my braces so when they saw how small my mouth was they had to pull teeth in order for them all to fit in nice and neat. All Ashton cared about was NOT getting any teeth pulled. He did not care about all the hardware, getting braces twice or how bad this could hurt….he just wants all his teeth where they are!!

Tournament

Tournaments were this past Sunday (2-7-10). Ashton’s team ended the regular season in 8th place out of 11 teams!! That’s stellar considering his team is a group of 3rd graders playing in a 4th grade league! They had to play the #1 seeded team that has not lost a game all season long. We lost but they did not lose easily. They gave that Eastside team a run for their money! It’s probably the hardest our team has played all season long and that was very encouraging.

Stephon’s team ended their regular season in 5th place out of 13 teams. This team has come such a long way in the 3 years they’ve played together. They played East Noble in their first game and beat them. That moved them onto the 2nd round. They played an Angola team that hasn’t lost all season long. They ended up losing - too bad!!

Now we are onto the rest of the season. Next weekend Stephon is set to play in a tournament in North Manchester. Then the entire month of March we are set to be in a tournament every weekend. Can’t wait!!!

Piggies

Sunday (1-31-10) was also a night of additions to our pig family. The last sow expecting had her litter last night. She had 9 but 3 died. That puts our baby pig total to 24 right now!!!! YIKES This year we had 4 mamas have babies this year. That’s a lot of mouths to feed!! The boys will both be in 4H this year so we’ll need them. Hopefully we can sell these better than they sold their fall baby pigs. I’m sure we will since the ones from January and February are used for fair pigs and the ones from the fall are used for shows across the country. It’s hard to sell pigs for shows that people around here don’t really go to.

Basketball update

Sunday (1-31-10) was the last week in the West Noble basketball league before next weekend’s tournament. Ashton’s 3rd grade team in a 4th grade league lost their first game but won their second game. It’s so great to see them playing with older kids and actually beating them. After the coming tournament we should be playing only 3rd graders the rest of the season. Stephon’s team won both their games this week. They’ve been getting progressively better each week. I’m excited to see both boys play their tournaments this weekend and see how it goes. We’ve still got games the whole month of February and March, so we’ve got many more games to look forward to.

It’s been awhile, so let’s start out slow

I got to have lunch with Ashton, Friday (1-29-10) at the school. It was so nice to be able to see him in his element. He’s very much a friend oriented kid. He loves his friends and his friends really seem to rally around him. I don’t know how any of them get their food ate in the time they have. Their mouths are too busy yapping at one another to get any food in it and close it to chew. But somehow they all, with the exception of Ashton, get their food ate in a timely manner. I had planned on eating there with him. I mean it was cheese stuffed crust pizza with buttered corn and pineapple. Some of my favorite foods – but one look at the pizza told me I could wait to eat at home J I just took the time to talk to the boys and soak it all in. When it was time for recess I was asked by the boys to stay and play but I since I had groceries in the car to take home to put away I kindly declined with the promise of next time. Ashton gave me a big hug, a kiss and gave me the biggest smile of appreciation. It warms my heart how much he really loves that his dad and I come to school and eat lunch with him. I can’t wait to do it again.

Side note: I would TOTALLY do it for Stephon if I didn’t think that the moment he saw me walk in his cafeteria, he would hide under the table and crawl out of the room without me seeing him.